in Summertime

September 15, 2016September 15, 2016

Figure Skating Anyone?

After an unbearably long post-injury wait, this week we got to know Hanyu Yuzuru’s plans for the upcoming season The new musics were unveiled on Tuesday during an open practice in Toronto and a few facts were revealed to the delight and horror of the fans.

So what do we have.

In the short program Hanyu will be skating to Let’s Go Crazy by Prince. I am reasonably happy with this choice. Prince may not be my favourite musician but I appreciate him as an artist and of course I’m sorry about his recent death. And anyway, classics from the Eighties always work in figure skating so it’s a clever choice. Hanyu can be Prince, big time. Only I’m not totally sure about the drum machine. I mean, it’s good to have drums to support your routine, but I’m worried about them being too mechanic and therefore hostile in terms of interpretation.

We still don’t know about the the costume but surely it’s going to be success, after all Hanyu looks fabulous in purple.

The announced layout, when executed completely clean, could potentially exceed 110 points. The newly minted 4lo will make its debut, followed by a magnificent spread-eagle, in place of the 4T which is a potential cause of injury for Hanyu. I trust the 3A is going to be huge.

4lo, 4S-3T, 3A

As for the free program, the composer of the music is Joe Hiraishi who turned out be the author of most Ghibli soundracks, including Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and The Wind Rises, which is amazing enough. But it’s not all. He’s also the composer of choice of Kitano Takeshi. When we saw Hana Bi, or Sonatine, that was his music.

After Seimei last year, there is no doubt Hanyu masters a signature style now, Japanese minimalist contemporary music paired with pioneering technical content.

The layout, behold!
4Lo, 4S, 3F, 4S-3T, 4T, 3A-2T, 3A-1Lo-3S, 3Lz

Another interesting piece of news is that Hanyu has switched from Edea IceFly to Edea Piano skates. Pianos are supposed to be better at absorbing impact shocks and they also come with a more ergonomic heel curve, which brings me to the painful point.

Hanyu is still in pain. During an interview he said that he feels pain but it’s manageable and it’s not preventing him from skating the way he wants to skate. So apparently the ligament lesion in his left foot has become chronic or something along the line or recurrent. He will have to deal with it for the rest of the season and maybe also at the Olympics.

Now, a lot of athletes not to mention dancers live with chronic pain, especially in figure skating it’s relatively common to undergo hip surgery, exertional compartment syndrome surgery and things like that. We know it. It’s heartbreaking when it happens to our athlete though. According to an interview Hanyu gave last month, he is sorry he made us worry this summer, so I guess we should be supporting him with increased determination and sheer abandon.